In any big case, the detail defines the crime. So when we think of the scenario that the cops have outlined in the death of Google exec Forrest Timothy Hayes, we'll think of the woman finishing her glass of wine as Hayes lay dying from a heroin overdose aboard his boat. In the tabloids, the headlines would scream Cabernet Killer, The Merlot Moll, The Petit Syrah Shrug.

Naturally, I had to read every last detail about the arrest of Alix Tichelman, 26, a suspected prostitute who was snared in a sting over the Fourth of July weekend. And that's where I came across this sentence in USA Today, an ordinarily reputable rag:

"A Google exec shooting up drugs and having prostitutes contrasts sharply with the spic-and-span public image of Silicon Valley as a place where geeks in hoodies sleep under their desks and devote their lives to inventing the next big thing."

I suppose we might have asked for this. In its hubris, the valley has flaunted its superiority over more hum-drum sectors of the economy. And "don't be evil" has been Google's corporate motto, widely parodied since.

But spic-and-span in reality? Please. It's never been that way in the valley. To think of this case as an aberration shows a huge ignorance about human beings, particularly young people who have been gifted with several million dollars in the space of a few years.

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The shadowy litany

How shall I count the ways? Well, I might start with Eric Omuro, a Mountain View computer consultant who was arrested last month on charges of running a prostitution website called MyRedbook. The feds say he made more than $5 million before it closed down.

Or I could mention the big Mexican drug cartel that was busted in Silicon Valley last April, with 18 arrests. District Attorney Jeff Rosen warned then that Mexican cartels are using Silicon Valley as a major artery for the flow of illegal drugs. (Another memo to USA Today: Those geeks aren't sleeping: They're taking Provigil to stay up).

For that matter, I could summon the list of Silicon Valley homicides -- the still-unsolved 1994 killing of Matthew Flores in an Applied Materials parking lot, the knifing of developer Birk McCandless in 2005, or the murder of three managers at SiPort by a disaffected employee in 2008.

Anybody insisting that Silicon Valley has a spic-and-span image has to explain the legacy of companies that backdated their stock options or colluded with one another to stop the poaching of engineers.

A family's agony

My point in this litany is not to make light of what happened to Hayes last November 23. You can only imagine the agony his family is going through: A 51-year-old hailed as a dedicated family man, a father of five, died in a very seamy way. Police say his last moments were spent with a woman who boasted having 200 male clients and called herself "a sweet and sexy vixen."

Instead, I want to point out the obvious: The temptations of money and drugs and sex don't pass the valley by just because we're working on the next "moon shot."

Hayes was not an aberration. He was simply unlucky enough to be a victim. In Silicon Valley, wearing a hoodie doesn't make you a monk.